Project: Rackmount Overkill

Automata · Jan 22, 2012

I got my virtual machine servers put together, but I'm not even sure that I want to keep them. They are good, but I think I can get a dual socket quad core (Core2) box for the same price, which will be much faster. The biggest factor that I'm not happy with is the case. I had to do so much work to get them to function and they still have crappy expensive rails. I'd love to get a Dell Poweredge, drop it in the rapid rails and fire it up.

EDIT: Oh, and the processors are 32bit, which limits what I can run on them.

jmdixon85 · Jan 22, 2012

thideras said:
I got my virtual machine servers put together, but I'm not even sure that I want to keep them. They are good, but I think I can get a dual socket quad core (Core2) box for the same price, which will be much faster. The biggest factor that I'm not happy with is the case. I had to do so much work to get them to function and they still have crappy expensive rails. I'd love to get a Dell Poweredge, drop it in the rapid rails and fire it up.

EDIT: Oh, and the processors are 32bit, which limits what I can run on them.

Yeah it's a shame Intel didn't make any 64bit Dothan (2nd gen Pentium M) CPU's

Would have made a for a great power efficient server back in the day. Sort of like the Athlon MP did but only better

Automata · Jan 22, 2012

I'm already making plans to part these out. I know what servers I want. I'll probably get them in the next few days.

95blackz26 · Jan 23, 2012

thideras said:
I'm already making plans to part these out. I know what servers I want. I'll probably get them in the next few days.

what servers are you looking at?

Automata · Jan 23, 2012

IBM x3650

I'll probably get two of them and put dual quads with 24gb of RAM each. That should last me a while. I considered the PowerEdge 2950s, but the IBMs are cheaper for the same hardware.

Automata · Jan 27, 2012

I guess this is as good a time to put the new power cables in. Had two power outages last night and I kept the servers powered off after the first.

Servers have been completely off for nearly 24 hours. I wanted to make sure there was no damage. I don't have a UPS on these yet...
*grumble* 160 days uptime *grumble*

95blackz26 · Jan 27, 2012

thideras said:
IBM x3650

I'll probably get two of them and put dual quads with 24gb of RAM each. That should last me a while. I considered the PowerEdge 2950s, but the IBMs are cheaper for the same hardware.

nice deal with the ibm's , i've been looking at the 2950's but some of them seem overpriced for what you get. going by ebay where they have stripped down ones with a huge pricetag.

Automata · Jan 27, 2012

The only thing I'm worried about with the x3650 is that all the documentation says "fully buffered" RAM, but the sticks that I find for this are not explicitly labeled as such. I'm not sure if this is required or the sticks are just not labeled. I'll have to research this before buying them.

As long as you promise not to buy all the servers (10+), I can send you a link via private messages showing you which one I'm considering.

95blackz26 · Jan 27, 2012

thideras said:
The only thing I'm worried about with the x3650 is that all the documentation says "fully buffered" RAM, but the sticks that I find for this are not explicitly labeled as such. I'm not sure if this is required or the sticks are just not labeled. I'll have to research this before buying them.

As long as you promise not to buy all the servers (10+), I can send you a link via private messages showing you which one I'm considering.

hmm might not be on the label.

i'll have to find somewhere local to buy a rack from.

haha i won't buy all 10 the most i would go for would be 2. thank you for sending the link.

cw823 · Jan 27, 2012

95blackz26 said:
hmm might not be on the label.

i'll have to find somewhere local to buy a rack from.

haha i won't buy all 10 the most i would go for would be 2. thank you for sending the link.

Really? I thought any FB-DIMM was pretty obvious just by looking at it. I must be out of touch a bit

Aynjell · Jan 27, 2012

I really should try to get that link also but I can't really afford more servers. I hope they work out for you Thideras, and keep us posted.

Automata · Jan 27, 2012

Sent you a message with the link, 95blackz26.

EDIT: Aynjell, I'll get you later.

Automata · Jan 27, 2012

Servers are started up and both RAID arrays are doing patrol reads. New cables worked perfectly and the arm I was sent for the 2650 works great, as well.

TiZakit · Jan 27, 2012

Glad to hear it survived the trip and every thing else is back up and running.

Automata · Jan 27, 2012

Well, it wasn't completely uneventful. The server came up, but I couldn't access the RAID console remotely nor could I connect to the Samba shares. Turns out that I've never restarted the server, so I forgot to configure iptables or SELinux (I disable both on initial install and then configure later). I was really confused why nothing was working. It had an uptime of around 160 days.

Patrol reads are done on the RAID 10 array, but the massive RAID 6 array is only 83% done.

ziggo0 · Jan 28, 2012

When I grew my 10TB raid5 to raid6 I went out and bought a UPS first...we had a massive snow storm coming. The reshaping was going to take 6 and a half days....power never went out due to weather, but a breaker tripped...thankfully the UPS was there to gracefully shutdown the server, reshaping started right back up where it left off (manually). Time to invest :/

Automata · Jan 28, 2012

There is an issue with that, though. I could get one UPS that handles just the file server, but that is going to be $100+. I have a Compaq R3000 UPS that has dead batteries and I don't even know if it works. I could take a risk and drop $250 on batteries and hope it works or buy a used known-working rackmounted UPS to replace it, but that is a bit more expensive.

Or, I could take the batteries out of the vehicles and hook it up...

95blackz26 · Jan 28, 2012

cw823 said:
Really? I thought any FB-DIMM was pretty obvious just by looking at it. I must be out of touch a bit

i only really scanned the ad. didn't really dig into the specs at that moment.

Automata · Jan 28, 2012

I just started 8 virtual machines at once while streaming media from the server. It didn't even flinch. Now I want to upgrade the file server because the processor is a pretty large bottleneck, along with the RAM. I'm still considering the IBM servers, but I can't move myself to hit the buy button.

Automata · Jan 28, 2012

I also pulled the trigger on those servers just now.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120838900469?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Project: Rackmount Overkill

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